Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Minimum Water clarity for Bass Pond?

I just took a Secchi reading and I was between 12-14" of visibility. This is pretty similar to when my pond first filled up (pond is almost a year old now) and also matches the same water clarity as an older pond on the property. My question is, do I need to clear this body of water up to make it more productive? The pond does have a nice green tint to it at the moment, so I'm assuming I'm getting decent plankton. My pond is also very low currently, as we are in a pretty bad drought. The banks are fairly barren as all attempts to grow vegetation for erosion control have failed due to a lack of rain. I have some annual rye grass currently that is barely hanging on in some areas but that's about it. I'm assuming that my water clarity will get slightly better (maybe 1-2") once I get vegetation growing on the banks. The goal of this pond is going to be a high catch rate bass/BG pond, and my only source of water is the sky. We were able to catch bluegills just fine on small lures last fall, so it seems the visibility is good enough to catch fish. I personally have no issues with the water clarity from a cosmetic standpoint. We had a small lake on our last property that started out muddy, but then as aquatic vegetation started to emerge it rapidly became very clear which then allowed the aquatic vegetation to pretty much take over the entire pond. So not looking for a repeat of that.

Thanks in advance

Determine if the clarity is due from suspended solids (clay, etc.) or from phytoplankton. If from phytoplankton, 12" clarity is where I start getting concerned about having a summer kill at night due to O2 crashing if the pond doesn't have a good aeration system in it.

I don't believe it's from phytoplankton. The green tint to the water is a recent development that has happened over the last 30 days, or as soon as we started warming back up. Compared to my previous measurements it does not appear that the green tint has affected the visibility at all. I've been at a fairly consistent 12-14" since the place filled up.

Read through this thread for some ideas for an easy commonly used way to test what could be causing the water clarity issue and how to deal with it.
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=37367#Post37367

Some opinions of new science are saying around 30" water clarity is the good clarity target for growing good sport fish and minimizing the chances of having bluegreen algae problems. Water clarities of 12"-20" if it is mostly producing phytoplankton has too much fertility (usually phosphorus) that often transforms into bluegreen algae (Cyanobacteria) problems during the warm season. Abundant bluegreen algae does not transfer a lot of good nutritious food into the zooplankton community, Too much phytoplankton (vis 12") can be problem during several dark overcast days where it will cause dissolved oxygen sags and types of fish kills even when bottom aeration is being used.